World-class expertise on ridiculous matters

Let’s hear it for the Oscars. On the whole, America’s premier awards show bellied up to the bar and provided three plus hours of quality entertainment. Ellen DeGeneres ordered pizzas and took a group selfie that a few people liked, Gravity swept nearly every minor award and Leonardo DiCaprio went home empty handed once again. By most measures, it was a grand old night to honor the stars.

Except for one undeserving winner. “Let it Go” taking Best Original Song is straight up bollocks, as folks across the pond might say. (Not that there are any ties to the United Kingdom in this story, the word just popped into my head and had to be released into print.) Continue reading →

The Real World is back on MTV’s airwaves and they’ve changed the format on some things with the new “Ex-Plosion” season. Now, after putting the Real World cast into the house for a few weeks, MTV sends in the cast’s exes to live with them for the remainder of the show.

Poor Scholars’ own Pat Flynn and Scott Phillips broke down the new cast — and format — in an exchange conducted last week. The duo breaks down the cast, potential Challenge competitors and the man that was born to be on the Real World: Cory.

Rock got no reason, rock got no rhyme. You better get me to school on time.

It’s been more than 11 years since School of Rock first captivated audiences of all ages with its musically-infused brand of comedy. The former classmates/cast mates got together late last year for a reunion to rehash the old times at Horace Green prep.

And that got me thinking. Now, eleven years removed from their moment in the sun as rock stars, what have Jack Black’s former proteges accomplished? Continue reading →

If The Wolf of Wall Street has taught us anything, it’s that any true rhythm comes from beating on one’s chest. Matthew McConaughey’s legendary tutelage of Leonardo DiCaprio won’t soon be forgotten, and from the moment McConaughey laid down his impromptu beat, it seemed destined for bigger things.

Dan Harmon, the creative force behind the famously self-aware show Community, has taken his talent for controlled insanity and brought it to a new medium: animation. After getting fired from Community’s fourth season, Harmon started shopping around his idea for a show where his more insane ideas could come to fruition, which meant removing the limit set by using real actors on a real stage. As a result, his new cartoon, Rick and Morty, watches like an unholy mixture of Futurama,Community, and Back to the Future, which just a hint of Family Guy raunch humor thrown in for good measure. Rick and Mortyis currently one of the highest rated shows in the coveted 18 – 45 male demographic, even beating out perennial favorite Archer. With that in mind, I watched the first six episodes to see if it lives up to all the hype.

Let’s talk talk shows. You have your young hotshots (Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon), your established mainstays (David Letterman, Craig Ferguson), and an edgy black (or perhaps red) sheep named Conan O’Brien. They’re all valuable parts of the after-hours spectrum, humerous and unique plenty of other buzzy words, but I’m not burning the late night oil for any of these noteworthy front men.

No, I plan to spend my late nights watching Late Night, otherwise known as the reason why Seth Meyers vacated the Weekend Update desk. Meyers’ new chapter as full-time host begins next Monday on NBC as he attempts to fill Fallon’s spacious shoes. Continue reading →